BASF is making it easier, and during the pandemic, safer for farmers to get information about its products.

On July 27 it launched a new website allowing farmers to visit the company’s research farms virtually.

“InField Innovation Tours is a unique, virtual tour experience that enables anyone, from anywhere, to journey into our fields and take a look at BASF solutions that are helping to bring out the best in crops across the country,” Justin Gayliard, BASF’s senior manager of customer solutions told reporters during a webinar July 22.

While planning for the site began as soon as COVID struck, BASF recognized the benefits of the ‘virtual’ approach and will continue it after the pandemic ends, he said.

“In the past we’d be stuck in certain windows where we’d show our plots… we now have the opportunity to film and bring that into that platform and really connect directly at the right times,” Gayliard said. “So this will continue to grow this season and we do plan to continue to develop and improve upon it going into next season as well.”

By season’s end there will be 5 different research farms to explore: Winkler, Man., Vanscoy, Sask., Lethbridge and Strathmore, Alta.and London, Ont.

“When we designed InField Innovation Tours, our aim was to get our customers as close to in the field beside us as possible,” he said. That’s why, you will also have the option to take a 360 degree look around both our treated and untreated sites, where we have called out the differences between the two trials.  And finally, like with most in-person tours, you will find BASF storyboards throughout the site showcasing the research and trial performance behind each of our innovative products.”